Korean Rice Cake Day - Garaetteok Celebration

Move over Pepero, it's time to give spotlight to Garaetteok! November 11 is famous for Pepero Day, where you give chocolate sticks to family and friends. This same date is also Garaetteok Day, it's literal translation being "Korean Rice Cake Day." Instead of chocolate sticks, you pass out long cylindrical rice cakes. Keep in mind that Garaetteok Day is Farmer's Day in Korea.

Two sticks of garaetteok (Maangchi)

1. MAKING GARAETTEOK

Garaetteok (가래떡) is made by pounding steamed rice flour, then dividing out the dough to create long flexible sticks. At festive events, you'll see people demonstrate the making of garaetteok in big vats and oversized wooden hammers.

Man pounding rice cake flour in Insadong (Flickr)

When you make garaetteok at home, it is a more quiet spectacle. You'd typically use a smaller "sledgehammer" and pound the rice flour on a wooden cutting board.

Making garaetteok at home (Fit for the Soul)

2. USES OF GARAETTEOK

Fresh garaetteok can be enjoyed plain as is: uncooked without any sauces. If the garaetteok has hardened, you can heat it back up by pan-frying or grilling.

Grilling garaetteok (NH Nonghyup)

Feel free to spice these carbs up by sticking them on skewers and brushing on spicy sauce made of gochujang! Also known as Tteok Kkochi (떡꼬치).

Spicy Skewered Rice Cakes (Naver)

Garaetteok is also thinly sliced into bite-sized pieces and popularly used to make Tteokguk (Rice Cake Soup). Tteokguk is eaten on Seollal, the Lunar New Year's Day. Traditionally, eating a bowl of Tteokguk on Seollal meant aging one year. If not, you'd stay the same age. I'd take the latter any day, please!

Sliced rice cakes (Maangchi)

Sliced rice cakes in tteokguk (RicepaddyRandalls)

Garaetteok also come in thinner cylinders and are used to balance flavorful dishes. They can be added into Budae Jjigae (Army Base Stew), Jjajangmyun (black bean noodles), and Dalkgalbi (Spicy Grilled Chicken).

Rice cakes camouflaged in Budae Jjigae (CherryOnMySundae)

Rice cakes tossed and turned while making Dalkgalbi (Naver)

The thin versions of garaetteok are commonly used for Tteokbokki (떡볶이), spicy Korean rice cakes. Tteokbokki is hard to miss when you visit Korea. It's a signature Korean street food!

Tteokbokki (Maangchi)

3. GARAETTEOK CELEBRATION

Veteran rice cake makers and participants holding the five colors of garaetteok on Garaetteok Day in Insadong (The Korea Times)

Choi Won-byeong (far left), the chairman of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, and guests holding up garaetteok (JoongangDaily)

Garaetteok Day. Carb lovers unite! (YonhapNews)

Whether you're into chocolate sticks or long rice cakes, Happy Garaetteok and Pepero Day! :)

14 Korean Celebs Playing the Pepero Kiss Game

Everyday is a good day to play the Pepero Kiss Game, especially when there are Kpop stars involved! Watch enough Korean entertainment shows and you're bound to see your bias partaking on this fun and flirty activity.

How do you play? As explained and demonstrated in my latest YouTube video, there are two players for each round. Each player puts one end of the Pepero stick into their mouth and bite away. Their lips inch closer and closer. The goal is to leave as little of the stick as possible while barely planting a kiss on one another.

When playing in groups, the duo with the shortest remaining stick wins! When playing with just you and one other person, simply have a good laugh and enjoy the chocolate.

Now let's watch some Korean celebs get hot and competitive over the Pepero Kiss Game.

1. Gary & Song Jihyo on Running Man

Gary goes from the martial arts "Crane Pose" to passionate kiss mode!

2. Soyeon (T-ara) & Oh Jong-hyuk

Many couples compete! How many centimeters long is their chocolate stick at the end of the round?

3. Super Junior's Henry & Yewon (using bread!)

Amber's reaction is even funnier than the actual game.

4. f(x)'s Amber & Tasty's Soryong (also using bread!)

Amber says, "Bite more more more more." Llamas are the best!

5. Yura (Girl's Day) & Hong Jong-hyun

As seen on "We Got Married," this couple had to get their stick shorter than 2 cm to win a travel prize! Did they make the cut?

6. Rainbow's Yoonhye & F.T. Island's Hongki

The shortest Pepero Kiss Game I've ever laid eyes on!

7. SHINee's Pepero Kiss Game on stage

You can play the game with any gender. Guy & guy, girl & girl is accepted!

Hope you enjoyed the hot and steamy rounds of Pepero Kisses! Tune in next week on my YouTube channel to learn more about everything Korean :)

How to Make Pepero Chocolate Sticks at Home

Scroll down to learn how to make these Pepero sticks!

... as well as these delicious sweeties :)

Pepero Day is just around the corner! Which means it's time to give away those yummy chocolate sticks to family, friends and your significant other. You can buy boxes of Pepero at a Korean market or make them yourself at home. It's quite simple and I'm showing you how. Ready or not, here we go!

Note: for the detailed instructions, watch my YouTube video this Wednesday (tomorrow)!

Step 1: Grab your sticks.

Have 'em ready for action. Make these sticks from scratch or get them at your local grocery shop. Doesn't have to be Korean. As long as you find edible goods in the form of sticks, you're good to go! As for me, I'm using ingredients found at the American market.

Experiment with different kinds of sticks to find your perfect match.

Breadsticks. These looks more like the classic Pepero sticks made of biscuit.

Pretzel rod. The salt bits paired with dark chocolate make a winning combo!

Wafer rolls. Shorter and more delicate compared to the previous sticks. However they do contain chocolate inside!

Step 2: Melt the chocolate.

Whatever your favorite chocolate is, it is time to melt them. Microwave or double boil. Your choice. I'll be using the double boil method to melt my morsels of dark and white chocolate.

Make sure your chocolate bits are in small, equal pieces.

Mmmmm... Move over diamonds! Chocolate are a girl's best friend.

Fill a saucepan with 2-3 inches of water. Place a snug-fitting glass or metal bowl on top. Make sure the heat is on low heat for simmering and that the water in the saucepan doesn't touch your stacked bowl. We don't want to burn the chocolate. What did those sweeties ever do to you to receive such treatment?

The double boil method. Typically you'd use a snug-fitting glass or metal bowl for stacking. Otherwise, improvise. Perhaps you'll place a bowl at an angle like I did (above).

Dump those chocolate morsels into the stacked bowl as the water simmers. Keep stirring. When there are only a couple bits left to be melted, turn the heat off.

I'm so tempted to swim in this.

Step 3: Cover the sticks with melted chocolate.

Leave one end of the stick untouched by chocolate. This allows for people to enjoy your homemade Pepero sticks without creating a hot mess on their fingers.

Step 4: Decorate those sticks!

Before the melted chocolate dries and hardens, sprinkle on your desired ingredients. Your sticks may look like twinsies of the original Pepero flavors. Or get creative and invent your own combo of party-in-the-mouths!

My family of vegan toppings: almonds, goji berries, pumpkin seeds, coconut shavings, and more!

I ended up making five sets of chocolate sticks. For the first batch, I used coconut shavings, raw almonds, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, chia seeds, red quinoa, millet, buckwheat, and amaranth. The healthy and nutritious makeover to Pepero! Makes you feel a little less guilty for eating sugar and refined carbs.

This first batch was my tastiest set of homemade Pepero. The salted pretzel rods paired with dark chocolate and crunchy toppings was a match made in heaven.

My second batch of homemade Pepero. Not as exciting and sexy as the previous set, however still cute in its own simple way.

Once I finished using my dark chocolate, I cleaned the stacked glass bowl and melted the morsels of white chocolate.

My third set of homemade Pepero was a rainbow. The combo of colorful sprinkles, white chocolate and breadsticks tasted like a birthday cake! Maybe even a unicorn.

My fourth set of homemade Pepero was the most fun to decorate. Though not as glossy as my first batch, the vibrant red of the goji berries make this batch exciting in terms of presentation.

I present to you... my fifth and final set of homemade chocolate sticks. Happy Pepero Day!

Don't forget to share your goodies with your loved ones. Spread the happiness and calories! One way to bond with people is to get fat with them :)